Saturday, September 29, 2012

We just hung up our Halloween advent calendar! I searched for some fun Halloween activities to do each night and not all of them fit what I wanted, so I decided to make my own borrowing from others' ideas and adding my own. I also used a spidery font. The "Watch a Halloween show or movie" and "Read a Halloween book" are listed more than once since we are just more likely to do that on more than one occasion. It also helps for nights when you won't be able to cook or make a craft because you are too busy.

For the "Spooky Movement Cards" you can download them as part of Alison's AWESOME H is for Halloween packet HERE :)

It is officially fall and I am SO excited for the holiday season this year! As I mentioned in my previous post, we moved in June, so this will be the first year celebrating the holidays in our new home. Isabella started preschool and, thank God, it has been a smooth start. I prepared her for weeks by role playing (I pretend to be the child and she leaves me at school, etc.) and I can't begin to tell you how much this helped her. I also made a photo book of her classroom prior to the school year and we looked at the pictures each night and talked about it. Lastly, we read a bunch of books about starting school and being nervous. My absolute FAVORITE thing we did was our Kissing Hand necklaces. We read The Kissing Hand and retold the story with our felt board a million times. The night before her first day of school I gave her a special Kissing Hand necklace.

It has her name on the back of her's and mine says Mommy on the back. I purchased it from this wonderful Etsy seller HERE if you are interested. Speaking of the night before her first day...we had our School Year's Eve party!

Her Magic School Year's Eve pillowcase designed to bring her sweet dreams and take away her fears. The racoon is Chester from The Kissing Hand :)

The Kissing Hand felt pieces.

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Her first day of school was awesome! There were tears when I left, but she did not cry long. We had a blast in the moring! She had heart-shaped waffle pops and got her Shultute.

She came home with a smile on her face and very proud of her first day certificate and coloring.

She called Daddy and then Grandma :)

She had a First Day of School lunch!

And for dessert we celebrated with cookie-brownies and sparklers!

We have only had tears on two other occasions. I am so proud of her! Her time at preschool allows me to get some stuff done around the house or time to read my Bible and devotionals. The best thing is that she has the opportunity to socialize with other children her age.